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A principal decides whether to approve an agent based on a noisy signal (e.g., test scores) generated by the agent. High-quality agents can produce high signals on average at lower cost, but the realizations are subject to noise that…

Theoretical Economics · Economics 2026-05-14 Shuhua Si , Yangfan Zhou

It has been shown that one can accommodate data (Bayes) and constraints (MaxEnt) in one method, the method of Maximum (relative) Entropy (ME) (Giffin 2007). In this paper we show a complex agent based example of inference with two different…

Methodology · Statistics 2016-09-08 Adom Giffin

In the persuasion model, apart from a few special cases, comparative statics has been an open question. We answer it, delineating which shifts of the sender's interim payoff lead her optimally to choose a more informative signal. Our first…

Theoretical Economics · Economics 2025-11-26 Gregorio Curello , Ludvig Sinander

We model endogenous perception of private information in single-agent screening problems, with potential evaluation errors. The agent's evaluation of their type depends on their cognitive state: either attentive (i.e., they correctly…

Theoretical Economics · Economics 2025-03-12 Benjamin Balzer , Benjamin Young

This paper analyzes a dynamic interaction between a fully rational, privately informed sender and a boundedly rational, uninformed receiver with memory constraints. The sender controls the flow of information, while the receiver designs a…

Theoretical Economics · Economics 2025-11-12 Qingmin Liu , Yuyang Miao

We present a general framework for training safe agents whose naive incentives are unsafe. As an example, manipulative or deceptive behaviour can improve rewards but should be avoided. Most approaches fail here: agents maximize expected…

Artificial Intelligence · Computer Science 2022-04-22 Sebastian Farquhar , Ryan Carey , Tom Everitt

All sequential decision-making agents explore so as to acquire knowledge about a particular target. It is often the responsibility of the agent designer to construct this target which, in rich and complex environments, constitutes a onerous…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2021-10-28 Dilip Arumugam , Benjamin Van Roy

The buying and selling of information is taking place at a scale unprecedented in the history of commerce, thanks to the formation of online marketplaces for user data. Data providing agencies sell user information to advertisers to allow…

Computer Science and Game Theory · Computer Science 2012-04-26 Moshe Babaioff , Robert Kleinberg , Renato Paes Leme

We consider an infinite collection of agents who make decisions, sequentially, about an unknown underlying binary state of the world. Each agent, prior to making a decision, receives an independent private signal whose distribution depends…

Computer Science and Game Theory · Computer Science 2012-09-07 Kimon Drakopoulos , Asuman Ozdaglar , John Tsitsiklis

This brief note considers the problem of learning with dynamic-optimizing principal-agent setting, in which the agents are allowed to have global perspectives about the learning process, i.e., the ability to view things according to their…

Machine Learning · Statistics 2026-01-12 Getachew K. Befekadu

We study principal-agent problems in which a principal commits to an outcome-dependent payment scheme (a.k.a. contract) so as to induce an agent to take a costly, unobservable action. We relax the assumption that the principal perfectly…

Computer Science and Game Theory · Computer Science 2021-06-02 Matteo Castiglioni , Alberto Marchesi , Nicola Gatti

The distribution of efficient individuals in the economy and the efforts that they will put in if they are hired, there are two important concerns for a technologically advanced firm. wants to open a new branch. The firm does not have…

Computer Science and Game Theory · Computer Science 2025-01-27 Sujata Goala , Mridu Prabal Goswami , Surajit Borkotokey

This paper considers the problem of optimal sensor schedules for remote state estimation of discrete-event systems. In this setting, the sensors observe information from the plant and transmit the observable information to the receiver or…

Systems and Control · Electrical Eng. & Systems 2023-11-27 Yingying Liu , Jin Hu , Yongxia Yang , Wei Duan

What is the purpose of pre-analysis plans, and how should they be designed? We model the interaction between an agent who analyzes data and a principal who makes a decision based on agent reports. The agent could be the manufacturer of a…

Econometrics · Economics 2024-07-30 Maximilian Kasy , Jann Spiess

Transfer learning is an important new subfield of multiagent reinforcement learning that aims to help an agent learn about a problem by using knowledge that it has gained solving another problem, or by using knowledge that is communicated…

Artificial Intelligence · Computer Science 2020-02-10 Cameron Reid

How does one test empirically the hypothesis that a decision maker (DM) is being influenced by information via Bayesian persuasion? In this paper, I consider a DM whose state-dependent preferences are known to an analyst, who sees the…

Theoretical Economics · Economics 2026-05-13 Jeffrey Mensch

The Bayesian persuasion paradigm of strategic communication models interaction between a privately-informed agent, called the sender, and an ignorant but rational agent, called the receiver. The goal is typically to design a (near-)optimal…

Computer Science and Game Theory · Computer Science 2021-06-21 Ronen Gradwohl , Niklas Hahn , Martin Hoefer , Rann Smorodinsky

We consider a network of agents whose objective is for the aggregate of their states to converge to a solution of a linear program in standard form. Each agent has limited information about the problem data and can communicate with other…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2014-05-06 Dean Richert , Jorge Cortes

We consider a multi-agent delegation mechanism without money. In our model, given a set of agents, each agent has a fixed number of solutions which is exogenous to the mechanism, and privately sends a signal, e.g., a subset of solutions, to…

Computer Science and Game Theory · Computer Science 2023-05-23 MohammadTaghi Hajiaghayi , Keivan Rezaei , Suho Shin

We study what changes to an agent's decision problem increase her value for information. We prove that information becomes more valuable if and only if the agent's reduced-form payoff in her belief becomes more convex. When the…

Theoretical Economics · Economics 2026-04-17 Mark Whitmeyer